The Irish political party tipped to win the most seats in the general election has called for a renegotiation of the €85bn (£71bn) IMF/EU bailout.

Fine Gael has stepped up the pressure for a reduction of what it believes is a "punitive" interest rate, in order to steer Ireland towards recovery. It is now a central plank of the party's election campaign.

In an interview with the Financial Times, finance spokesman Michael Noonan said: "We're pointing out to our colleagues in Europe that if you keep forcing such an expensive solution on to Ireland, despite our best efforts, we may not be able to make it."

Noonan is being tipped to become Ireland's new finance minister in a coalition government with Labour. His campaign will play well with an electorate suffering huge tax increases following the austerity measures introduced as a condition of the bailout.

His remarks come as one of the world's leading economists said that the Irish government should force senior bondholders to cut a deal and write off some of their debt.

Ken Rogoff, a former chief executive of the International Monetary Fund, told an Irish Times reporter in Davos that the scale of the austerity foreseen in Ireland was akin to that seen in Ceausescu's Romania.

Noonan seeking distance from Fianna Fail

It is the second time this week Noonan has banged this drum. On Tuesday he told the Dail he would be seeking a renegotiated deal with the EU. And two weeks ago Noonan tried to put clear water between Fine Gael and Fianna Fail by showing they would not be bullied by Europe.

Writing in the Sunday Independent he said the terms of the deal could be renegotiated "to allow the funds to take equity stakes in systematically important European banks, such as AIB and Bank of Ireland".

He also hinted that Germany should share the pain. "If other European countries have set their face against a default by Irish banks on reckless loans from banks regulated in their own jurisdictions, then they should be willing to contribute directly to the recapitalisation of Irish banks."

And he suggested a new fund should be set up to remove the loss-making tracker mortgages from banks like AIB and Bank of Ireland.

Ireland paying more for money than Latvia

The average for the IMF/EU loans is 5.8% – a 3% mark-up on the wholesale price.

The IMF portion of the loan is charged at a lower rate but, at Germany's insistence, Ireland is paying a higher rate on the EU loans which come from the Euopean Financial Stability Fund and the European Financial Stability Mechanism.

"They're charged at about six per cent and they're borrowing at about 2.8 to 2.9%. So there's 300 to 310 basis points of an odd on. Even if you were privately borrowing, that's a hefty management charge."

He pointed out that Latvia, Hungary and Romania were all borrowing from the EU at the rate of just 2.55%.

Europe already under pressure to reorganise bailouts

His calls are unlikely to fall on deaf ears, with moves afoot in Europe to restructure its deals with Greece and pressure on the EU from the IMF and ECB to reorganise its bailout fund.

It has been also noted that the EFSF's inaugural €5bn bond issue earlier this week was five times over-subscribed, indicating that financing is no barrier to solving Ireland's problem.

Speculation is growing that plentiful EFSF funds can be used by euro governments to buy back discounted debt in secondary markets.

As Reuters said in a report following the EFSF bond sale: "In other words, there is potentially a rich vein of cheap financing for the likes of Greece or Ireland to buy back their 10-year debts at less than 80 cents in the euro, without having to impose haircuts or trigger a 'credit event' or default."

Fine Gael 'overstating their level of influence'

Fine Gael has not put any detail on its proposal for bondholders and Noonan clearly does not want to scare the international markets, telling today's FT that Ireland "is not going to default on anything".

Trinity College Dublin political scientist Séin Ó Muineacháin said that Fine Gael and Labour's pledge to seek a mandate to renegotiate with Europe would be less influential than they like to make out.

"I find it interesting that Fine Gael and Labour are rattling the sabre but won't give any detail. I don't think their influence will be a significant as they think," he told the Guardian today. He said Ireland will not be able to cut any deal "unilaterally" .

With what is going on in Europe it is more matter of "all the planets aligning but when a deal happens Fine Gael and Labour can claim a victory".